Za’Darius Smith finally told the story he was not going to tell.
The newly signed Atlanta Falcons defensive end explained this week why he abruptly retired last October after just five games with the Philadelphia Eagles. The reason was as far from football as it gets.
“I wasn’t supposed to retire,” Smith told reporters on Thursday. “I wasn’t going to tell the story, but I’m going to tell it. I got a phone call from my mom’s doctor telling me that she don’t have much longer to be on this Earth. I let the team know. Obviously they wasn’t trying to let me leave, but that was the only thing I had left, to retire. So I retired.”
His mother died shortly after. His grandmother and father also died soon after that. Smith described being “in a dark place” during that stretch. It is hard to blame him.
The Eagles refused to release him. Retirement was the only exit. This is the part of NFL contracts nobody wants to talk about. The rosters are made of humans with families and emergencies, and the business does not always allow for that. Philadelphia had every legal right to hold Smith’s rights. That does not make the situation feel any better.
Smith is 33 now and has 70.5 career sacks. He signed a one-year, $6 million deal with the Atlanta Falcons on August 18. The Falcons needed pass rush help badly. Jalon Walker tore his ACL, and James Pearce Jr. was suspended eight games. Smith fills a real hole.
There is also a personal element to the signing. Smith is from Alabama, and Atlanta was where his mother wanted him to play. He is planning to bus her church family from Montgomery to Falcons home games in her honor. That is the kind of quiet dedication that does not get enough attention in a sport where every gesture becomes a highlight clip.
The football fit is straightforward. Smith is a proven pass rusher who has been productive with three different franchises. He does not need to be an every-down player for the Falcons. He needs to give them 6 to 8 sacks and force offenses to account for someone besides their inexperienced rush. That is a reasonable ask.
The bigger story here is Smith’s willingness to share what he went through. NFL players are conditioned to keep everything internal. Grief, family emergencies, personal struggles. All of it gets shoved down until it comes out sideways. Smith just opened up publicly and let people see the real cost of what looked like a strange midseason retirement.
Falcons fans are getting more than a pass rusher. They are getting a player with something to play for.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
